Former England captain Michael Vaughan has given his support after officials has set in motion the procedure that could lead English cricket to have a new eight-team Twenty20 tournament.
England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) chiefs, having seen the success of the Indian Premier League and especially Australia’s city-based Big Bash Twenty20 tournaments, believe it needs something similar to help it reach family audiences and encourage children to become fans of the sport.
However, the proposal has proved hugely controversial as, if enacted, it will mean that for the first time there is a major domestic cricket tournament in England that does not feature all 18 first-class counties.
At present, the ECB’s rules state all those clubs must be involved in its competitions — the first-class County Championship, the 50-over One-Day Cup and the Twenty20 Blast.
But ECB chairman Colin Graves will formally ask his board on Tuesday to trigger a change in those regulations in a bid to initiate the process for creating the new tournament.
“This new Twenty20 league is a risk but sometimes you have to gamble to grow a sport,” wrote Vaughan in his Daily Telegraph column published online yesterday.
“Australia, India, Pakistan and the Caribbean already have big Twenty20 tournaments. We are just playing catch up and it is about time too.
“Those of us close to the game think cricket is the centre of the world. But people outside cricket are not talking about our sport. It just does not grab the country’s attention often enough outside Ashes series,” the former Yorkshire batsman insisted.
The IPL and the Big Bash are the only senior domestic Twenty20 events in India and Australia respectively but the ECB plans to keep the Blast going alongside its new tournament, which it hopes to launch in 2020.
Monday saw the ECB present what it says was a “detailed overview” of its plans to its 41 members, comprising the counties, recreational boards and MCC.
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